Demo on Layering

To give unity, I started with an overall wash upon which I could build succeeding layers.  Next, I chose a color nearby on the color wheel to create a midtone.  Finally, I added darks closest to where I wanted the viewer's eyes to land.  The resulting painting has an overall cool color dominance with some warmth added for contrast.  Some areas were left white for extra "pop".  The buoys in the foreground were included to break up the rather rectangular area of water, and also to guide the eye to the lobster boat where it could begin to circulate among the elements of the wharf.

I chose to paint on dry paper for this painting which creates all hard edges.  This is a good subject to experiment with painting on a pre-wetted page to have some underlying soft edges.  I can also switch to a warm dominance.  So many possibilities!